Former FA chairman Lord Triesman says FIFA should relocate the 2022 World Cup to England if Qatar is found guilty of rule-breaking in their bid to host the tournament.
A report in the Sunday Times claimed that Qatar employed a PR firm and ex-CIA agents to smear their rivals, the US and Australia.
Triesman, who was chairman of England’s failed bid for 2018, says that FIFA should investigate the allegations and potentially strip them of the multi-billion-pound tournament.
He said: “If Qatar is shown to have broken the FIFA rules, then they can’t hold on to the World Cup. It would not be wrong for Fifa to reconsider England in those circumstances.”
The Qatar 2022 tournament organisers deny the allegations.
Mark Palios, the former Football Association chief executive, told the BBC that England has the stadiums and “they could organise themselves within that timeframe […] Absolutely they could switch this”.
Qatar has previously faced allegations of corruption from the football world, but a 2-year investigation by FIFA came up with nothing.
If the governing body did decide to move the World Cup, which is set to take place in the winter to accommodate the country’s high temperatures, then they’d likely face a hefty legal challenge.
Nick Pope is the Site Director of Esquire, overseeing digital strategy for the brand.
